“Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23:6 (NLT)
I love the seasonal timing of Easter; it comes right as winter is surrendering her long, cold, dark days to spring. Spring gladly takes the baton and welcomes new birth, as flowers blossom, woodland animals birth their young, and warmth returns to our bones.
Even still, as nature softens to life and light, many of us carry winter’s burdens into the Easter holiday season, baby chicks and sprouting daisies unable to mend our broken hearts. What’s more devastating is when we know that Christ’s resurrection should be our joy, but this world-changing miracle doesn’t seem to penetrate our hearts and offer a beam for our wounds.
As Christians, what are we to do when the truth feels like a distant story that doesn’t offer relief for our present pain? In my life, I’ve discovered three things that I must do when hope seems out of reach, and I’ve discovered each of these action steps in the final three verses of Psalm 23:
1. Keep Moving Forward
Psalm 23:4 (NLT) says, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley… you are close beside me.”
It’s nearly impossible to believe in God’s ever-present faithfulness, His willingness to go to the ends of the earth with us, when we are stagnant. When we give our hearts over to idleness and defeat, we shut the door on Christ’s willingness to move forward with us, even in the darkness. It’s as though we are telling Him we prefer to sit in the shadows, that doing nothing will somehow do something for our hearts.
Friends, I challenge you to keep moving forward. Keep reading your Bible, praying, and attending church. Keep going to life group, listening to uplifting worship music, and looking for God, even in the simplest spring blessings. Christ is in all of these good, holy, lovely things, and if we are willing to put one foot in front of the other, we will find the undeniable hope that He is ever-present, offering grace and love for us to endure even the most heavy seasons.
2. Look Up
Psalm 23:5 (NLT) says, “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies…”
God doesn’t promise that He will banish all our enemies, but He guarantees a feast for us when we face them. This requires us to look up and look forward as we keep moving along the path God has paved. We will never know what it means to be victorious if we keep our sights set on nothing but the ground, our view nothing but our worn, weary feet dragging through each day.
When we consider the war heroes of old, whether in literary classics or real-life accounts, each has one undeniable character quality that links them to all the others: a near-reckless willingness to look the enemy in the eye and charge forward, come what may.
They denied their safety and made the victory all that mattered, some at the expense of their own lives. If we are desperate enough to leave behind the hopelessness that threatens our hearts, we will stare down our enemies and charge forward, knowing that the Lord’s feast, His victory, is already set before us.
3. Believe What You Can’t Feel
Psalm 23:6 (NLT) says, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.”
When I use the adverb “surely,” it’s always in a hopeful sense, meaning that I don’t have a guarantee for the situation, but “surely” they will show up because they promised they would, “surely” the sun will come out after all the rain, “surely” they will make the right decision because of their character, etc. “Surely” is a spoken hope, a belief in what you can’t see, or maybe even feel. It’s nothing short of spurring goodness to win.
Friends, if we wait to “feel” hope, if we “wait” on man to make their word mean something, we are selling the victory short. Christ’s hope is too powerful to be inactivated by our doubt, and it’s far too beautiful to be marred by man’s inability to keep promises.
We can believe in Christ’s promises and eternal hope. We can say, “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life” with complete confidence, with hope fulfilled.
Let’s pray:
Father, as we consider these three challenges in pursuing your resurrection hope, grant us the ability to believe in your true, unyielding, unstoppable power. May your hope, peace, and faithfulness flood our hearts and minds this Easter season as we surrender stagnancy, hopelessness, and defeat to your unfailing victory. Forever, God, Amen.
Photo credit: ©Sparrowstock
Related Resource: I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life | Midweek Prayer (John 14:1–6)
When our hearts feel troubled, Jesus invites us to trust Him again.
This short midweek prayer creates space to pause, breathe deeply, and return to Jesus’s words in John 14:1–6, where He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In this guided prayer, we acknowledge the places where worry, uncertainty, or longing have unsettled our hearts and bring them honestly before God.
Jesus reminds us that we are not alone—that He is with us, that He is preparing a place for us, and that He will return for us. As we pray, we ask for help to trust Him more deeply and to follow Him in the way He has already made clear: to love God fully and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Take a few quiet minutes to slow down, listen for God’s invitation, and rest in the presence of the One who leads us in truth and life. If you like what you hear, follow So Much More on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
Originally published Monday, 23 March 2026.
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